How do you film a PC screen?

naeem

naeem

Well-known member
Tried searching for this - found nadda.

How do film a computer screen - without the low-res and refresh lines. Everything looks like crap after I tried this?

What am I missing?

thanks,
Naeem
 
You have to mess around with your shudder speed until the flicker goes away. It depends on the refresh rate of your pc (in MHz) at what rate... most people run at 60 MHz, I run at 85 I think... you can find that out through the desktop, rightclick properties, go to the monitor tab, and then in the advanced tab, there should be a refresh rate tab...

Either way, your shudder speed is the thing you're going after.
 
In Camera - you change your shutter speed to the "synchro" shutter, then in the menu system there is a place to adjust that shutter setting intimately to match whatever it is you are shooting...
 
There is also apiece of capture software that will convert fomr screen directly to video-type files. But please don't ask me the name of it.
 
Try Camtasia Studio it will give you a better resolution than trying to video the screen. Plus you can set the capture area say if you didn't want the whole screen and just a section of it.

www.techsmith.com made by the same people that make snag-it.
 
Also keep in mind that your monitor is going to be a daylight balanced light source. White balance accordingly.
 
Hmm.., very interesting.

So, are most of you guys using Sceen capture apps, and then importing them into your NLE, or are you actually filming the screen?

I'm hearing 2 different approaches here...

Also, if you you some kind of screen capture app, how good are those apps at caturing video? How about Snag-It, I think it'll do this as well...just worried about the quality.
 
Screen recording software like Camtasia Studio will capture your screen directly too an AVI file. You set the frame rate for capture. Screen recorders typically capture at slow frame rates 5 - 15 fps. However, this isn't an issue because you can time stretch it in After Effects, which is where you going to composite anyway. The motion tracking in AE Pro will easily let you corner pin to any regular footage you have of your empty computer screen and if you want other video mapped to the screen as though you were displaying live video inset into a portion of the computer screen you can corner pin that in as well on another layer.

Then just output your composite for your favourite NLE.
 
naeem said:
Hmm.., very interesting.

So, are most of you guys using Sceen capture apps, and then importing them into your NLE, or are you actually filming the screen?

I'm hearing 2 different approaches here...
Click to expand...

What's your project?

If you were making an instructional video on how surf the web, the screen capture would make sense, but if you were making a short film and you don't want the computers to flicker, use synchro scan.
 
Uhrgl is correct, the screen capture programs are the way to go if you have an instructional video or want to clearly show what is on the screen (make it readable). If you just have a scene that includes a shot of a computer monitor then you would just shoot it like anything else but using synchro scan.

Camtasia is very smooth and you can choose any frame rate you desire and Audio rate as well. Depending on what you choose you can get really crappy rough choppy captures to fluid smooth captures. I use it every now and then to record videos that can not be downloaded like news streams and embedded videos. You can set it to record the full screen or draw a box around the area you want to record.

It is a really cool program.
 
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